Tag Archives: Belgium

Terrorist beginnings

The previous year France and Belgium had to face very serious attacks to the integrity of their nation.

In the mid-1980s Belgium had already an experience of terrorist actions. Primarily engaged in bombings within Belgium’s borders the CCC or Cellules Communistes Combattantes (Communist Combatant Cells) attacked perceived enemies of communism, specifically NATO, US and other international businesses and the Federation of Belgian Enterprises. Today many may have forgotten those Cellules Communistes Combattantes their attacks which led to several injuries and only two deaths, whilst the Bende van Nijvel or Nivelles Gang, also known as the Brabant killers managed to kill 28 people and got 40 seriously injured between 1982 and 1985, but are also left in the past.

This present day also after the bombings at the airport and metro of Brussels, and the several terrorist attacks by Islamic terrorists all over the country, made the Belgium a little bit more alert They had tears for the victims (Christians, atheists, but also Muslims) but also very sensitive to continue to live on, not giving in to the Islamic terrorists, fearing everything about Muslims.

Taken by fear and covering clothes

The French seem to be taken so much by fear they start panicking as soon as they see a Muslim man or Muslim woman. Even worse, when they notice a Muslim woman in covering clothes or in a swimsuit they get in a terrible state and start using bad words and doing abusive degrading, humiliating actions. Do they really think such devout person, covering her body parts, would be a threat for their life?

Several majors of French cities and several politicians tried to limit the way women can chose their dress. On Thursday, the council of state, France’s highest administrative court, and judicial and advisory body, examined a request by the French Human Rights League to scrap the burkini bans which were imposed and caused already several disturbing and very embarrassing terrible humiliating situations.

citing reasons such as the need to protect public order, hygiene or French laws on secularism, many women wearing too much covering clothes were reprimanded and those with a burkini were forced to take it off and to pay a fine.

Lawyers argued that the short-term decrees are illegal and had good reason to declare such bans to be against human rights of liberty, in a state which had liberty in its ensing, having Liberty, Equality and Fraternity as their three core values.

Burkini ban

The film-temple Cannes was the one to start all the fuss and gave the kick-off for banning the burkini because it

“could risk disrupting public order while France was the target of terrorist attacks”

by which you may wonder how such covering up of the body, still showing it is a woman in the dress, would disrupt public order. When the way of dress would create others to react negatively, the state should react on those who take on a racist attitude and not on the one who wears ordinary clothes. The second reason of imposing the restriction should ring strange bells in our ears: It is said those town imposed this law because burkinis ‘are’

of France. Where we do have to question which those good morals are, when you see all that body exploitation, commercial nudity, fornication, a.o.. Against the secularisation we can understand, noticing that the state wants to exclude any from of religion, Judaism, real Christianity, though not objecting the pagan Roman Catholic Church because those Catholics do not do much with their religion and for those few priests and nuns who are in such minority, why should the state bother, because most people do not take them serious.

In France though most would oppose when a nun was forced to take off her habit on a beach, though lots of French people did find it right to have Muslim women to be forced to take off their (often even less covering) clothes. We even got to see where some police officers ‘helped’ to take off the clothes of a woman who was not quick enough according to their liking. It was really degrading to see such a humiliation in public in a so called Western civilised society.

Sexual objectification

In that French society suddenly fashion designers when designing nice clothes for Muslim women are called to help the people to set up against the governement and against public order.
France’s women’s rights minister, Laurence Rossignol, accused the designers of high-fashion burqinis and hajib headscarve of encouraging the “imprisonment of women’s bodies.” Would she also accuse the high fashion places of France to encourage the Caucasian men to consider women as a sex object and lookism target or making women attractive to be the treasure of man and as such imprison them in Western capitalist society? Why suddenly fashion for Muslim women becomes ‘Sexual objectification‘ when it is not for Caucasian non-religious and Catholic people?

The objectification of women, is an important idea in feminist theory and psychological theories derived from feminism and feminist shall have a new task in coming up for the rights of Muslim women, who are now clearly deprived of their own free choice to cloth them selves in a way they find appropriate according to their faith.

Fear for God searching and finding people

Mainly males protesting of the covered ladies bodies should have us wonder if those men do not have an other problem. And if they seriously think persons wearing such clothes could impose a danger to the community, they should come to give a better explanation. Lots of them are afraid of islamisation of their country and think that when more people show their devoutness more French people would be put to shame and shall come to consider to change their secular life and perhaps consider to come to look for God again. For many this is clearly also a problem. Many are very much afraid that people shall start wondering about their faith and about the Truth. Many are really fearing that several people may come to know God better and come to see how the Catholic Church mislead them so much.

Forcing women to go for protection

By forcing the Muslim women to cloth in a different way than they want to do for their faith, the French push them in a corner and shall make certain groups stronger, because they shall support those women and help them. In this way we have already the Algerian businessman and political activist Rachid Nekkaz who previously founded the organisation “Touche pas à ma constitution” (English: “Don’t touch my constitution”, a play on the slogan of the NGO SOS Racisme: Touche pas à mon pote), which pledged to pay the fine of any women convicted of wearing the burqa in public, now also has created a fund to pay for any fines incurred by women wearing burkinis, and has already helped several women by paying their €38 fine.

But also radical preachers shall get to pull the women to their site, showing how pervert modern society has become, and how much the State does everything to get people away from God. The latest measures forbidding to wear any religious symbol on public adds to the proof of the willing secularisation of the State.

At the same time the governement in France does everything to create more hate between its population and in Allah or God believing people.

Nekkaz called the burqini ban

“symptomatic of the French government’s efforts to eliminate Islam, bit by bit, from the constitution”,

But believers in God should see the Nation wants to go even a step further. Clearly this week they have taken the step to make it very clear that they are prepared to start the battle against the visibility of any God loving group of people, being it Jews, Christians or Muslims.

Public suppression and rejection of religion

La Sophia Lara, who is currently a student reading Latin and Italian at University in Scotland, whilst she is a linguist at heart, her interests and passions also expand to ‘philosophical’ contemplations (used in the slightest of terms), travelling and making YouTube videos on her channel, reacts rightly on her blog

A France which prides itself for liberté, égalité, fraternité, has unfortunately fallen short in recent times, with more social division and socialprejudice arising within the country, due to the public suppression and rejection of religion; the consequent of which has led to violent eruptions. It is also precisely through the social persecution of the wider islamic community in such acts which aim to strip them of their beliefs, that it seems that the French government are validating individuals’ fears, rather than attempting to diffuse them. I personally believe that the government has made very little effort to try to remedy the severance, and have instead trumped the terrorist acts as a way to divert the attention away from their own failed model of harmony. {France’s banning of the ‘Burqini’ is the rejection of its founding principles}

Suppression of dissent

In France we may notice that because of the fear for terrorist attacks and because of the fear of the unknown (the lack of knowledge of what really Islam is and should be) suppression of dissent has come to demand its place in that nation of liberty and so called freedom.

Lots of French do not want to give an ear to the other victims of the terrorist attacks and do not want to know more about Islam and how certain groups are misusing that religion its name to create war and anger. They do not want to take time to consider all facts and to engage with and constructively respond to or accommodate the other party’s arguments or viewpoint.

Sticker art arguing that dissent is necessary for democracy.

For many French people, Muslims are now considered a dissent perceived as a threat, against whom action must be taken, and should be repressed plus considered as “dissidents” to get rid off.

In several blogs we could find such reactions blaming ‘all Muslims’ for the agony which came over France.

Those who do not want to believe a woman can decide herself to wear a burkini deny the right of that woman to decide for herself

In France there are lots of people who do not seem to believe a Muslim woman can be strong enough to decide for herself to wear what she wants. There are even some people, like a Dutch blogger, who want to believe because a female wants to cover her body she is giving a sign that when it would not be covered she is allowed to be raped and should be found guilty of doing so. That is turning it all the way around (wrongly). By not allowing those women to dress as they want, the state gives the signal that it does matter how people are dressed and how female beings give a signal to men if they are ready to be taken as wife or be subject to be used as something else.

Any woman should have the own right to decide what she wants to wear without any man giving a connotation to what she wears.

So called nothing to do with racism but for safety reasons

When the burkini ban has nothing to do with racism and anti Islam religion do we not to question

How can a piece of clothing be a threat?
How can Burkini decrease the level of security?
How can they decide what women should wear to the Beach?
How is this even a topic of discussion?! {Burkini a threat…}

they think by forcing us to dress a certain way they are helping us… They are the ones oppressing muslim women by taking away their rights do be who they want to be and dress how they want to dress. {Burkini a threat…}

Why should any person who does not want to walk naked have not the right to cover her body up? Be her or him a Jew, Christian, Muslim, atheist or a pagan believer, who may have the right to decide what she or he has to wear?

The Swedish blogger writes

I’m so tired of the “what should muslim women wear” discussion. If my sisters don’t want to be half naked while swiming, they shouldn’t be forced. If my sisters want to cover up, they should be able to. And if my sisters want to be free, let them be free.

Stop trying to set us free from a decision we freely made!!
Stop trying to label us.
You do you, and we are going to do us and just keep being awesome.🙂{Burkini a threat…}

Madonna, France has a message for you: You can’t swim with us. #youcantsitwithus – Exclusive Madonna Holiday in France

An affront to women. A sign of intolerance towards cultural diversity and integration. A step to prejudice, discrimination, segregation and an insult to everyone who worked hard against them. {Universal concern: not naked enough}

and ads the very confronting nice picture.

Caption from film ‘Rapture’, 1999, Shirin Neshat

We only can hope the French will find a solution to avoid further Islamic terrorist attacks and shall not try any more to take away the attention of the French public, from the real problem France does not seem to be able to manage.

Too many atheists forget that they themselves do belief. They might belief many things, like that there is no God. some belief there was a Big Bang, others have other beliefs about the beginning of this universe. They also forget that they too have services and forms of ‘worship’ though they are not called as such and do not take place in buildings to be recognised as such, though in some places we can clearly recognise straight ahead their meeting places, which are often also signalled by plates or names on the building.

In certain countries, like Belgium and Germany, they also receive working funds from the government like the other groups of beliefs, be it Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Laic or humanistic covenant, which they do not refuse, and as such should have to be honest for themselves to recognise to be willing to be part of a faith group.

Like many others they assemble or gather at regular intervals. They too are divided in different main groups with subdivisions of different laic thinking. You could compare it with denominations in the different churches, and by ‘churches‘ we do not mean only churches of Christian religion but also of the many other religions we have in our surroundings.

Though what we can notice is that it is only the atheist group which like some conservativeevangelicals and Pentecostals, try to force their belief onto others as the only right belief. Being in the majority, those who want others to take it that there does not exist a God, often forget that the so called “freedom” they claim in their banner becomes very restricted in their way of thought, because it are just they and a few fundamentalists, who try to impose their thinking onto others as the only way of thinking to be allowed.

They should come to realize that human beings have an inner feeling of togetherness and somehow are attracted to the feeling of being part of something and needing to gather with others to keep that feeling strong. That is also the reason why we can find certain philosophers and laic thinkers finding it necessary to have regular gatherings or to have people like the atheist Sunday Assembly co-founder Pippa Evans who had to admit that when he left Christendom he realized

“it wasn’t God that I missed or Jesus, it was church. I really missed church.”

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A few years ago I found that I had to share with more people my belief in the onetrueGod that I behold my steep Rock and fortress, source of insight. My life had to endure a lot of storms and I certainly was not spared a few times to be beaten against the breakwater.

Through trial and error we have to learn things. I sometimes had more than once tried to get something from the ground, something successful, others less, and still another with failure.

For readers of another tongue then Dutch or Flemish we apologized that most of our pages were in Dutch, because the association was founded in the Flemish part of Belgium (Vlaams-Brabant) and was intended to be an association for people in the region of the Low Countries. But we did hope the visitors (from other countries) could also be able to find some interesting English texts as well.

We also said that as Bible-researchers we know that it can take a lot of effort to remain on the narrow way! (Matthew 7:13, 14) Only together we can be strong and shall we be able to support each other so that we, together, will be able to persevere. Therefore it is important to follow suit, to go there forwards and to connect with serious Biblestudents.

The association of Bible Scholars wanted to make people aware of the importance of the Bible. Even for those who do not believe in a CreatorGod they wanted to show the value of those old books in which there can be found many wise words. The association also wanted to be a haven where Bible lovers could find each other to study the Word of God and to look at the historical and scientific facts. It also wanted to show it members that they could find a high tower, and refuge, and give them the assurance there was a saviour who was willing of save them from violence.

Together they wanted to call on the Most High, the ElohimHashemJehovahWho is worthy to be praised: so they’ll be saved from their enemies. Working together around the Holy Scriptures the association wanted to have like minded people finding each other to help each other our about text-material and questions. They hoped to have their people not put to confusion, but deliver them in God’s righteousness, Him inclining His ear unto them, and saving them.

It was in God they wanted to see their strong habitation, where-unto they could continually resort, in the knowledge that the One and Only One God has given commandment to save us.

We wanted to get more people dwelling in the secret place of the Most High, abiding under the shadow of the Almighty, proclaiming to others that their God Jehovah is their refuge and their fortress and that they will trust in Him.

The association was also set up to give those people who felt called by God, to give them several utilities or help for the preaching work. The association wanted to be there for when for the time we ought to be teachers. We have need that one looks at each other and teach each other, helping to reach the goal, continuing stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.

The association also wanted to gather the people together, men, and women, and children, and the strangers that would come within our gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the Most High Lord of heaven and earth, our God, and observe to do all the words of His Law, training up children in the way they should go, so that when they are old, will not depart from it.

°°°

Below, the second article in the series, a translated overview of what formed the opening speech (our first reprint) at the publication of Bible scholars on Webs.

Het openingswoord van de Webs site van Bijbelvorsers, Vereniging voor Bijbelstudie, in juni 2010 – The opening speech of the Webs site of Bijbelvorsers, Vereniging voor Bijbelstudie or Bible scholars , Association for Bible study, in June 2010

11 We have much to say about him, and it is difficult to explain, because you have become dull in your hearing. 12 For although by now* you should be teachers, you again need someone to teach you from the beginning the elementary things+ of the sacred pronouncements of God, and you have gone back to needing milk, not solid food.

(Hebrews 5:11-12)

38 Peter said to them: “Repent,+ and let each one of you be baptized+ in the name of Jesus Christ for forgiveness of your sins,+ and you will receive the free gift of the holy spirit. 39 For the promise+ is to you and your children, and to all those who are far away, to all those whom Jehovah* our God may call to himself.”+40 And with many other words he gave a thorough witness and kept exhorting them, saying: “Get saved from this crooked generation.”+41 So those who gladly accepted his word were baptized,+ and on that day about 3,000 people* were added.+42 And they continued devoting themselves to the teaching of the apostles, to associating together,* to the taking of meals,+ and to prayers.+

(Acts of the Apostles 2:38-42)

4 “Listen, O Israel: Jehovah our God is one Jehovah.+5 You must love Jehovah your God with all your heart and all your soul*+ and all your strength.*+6 These words that I am commanding you today must be on your heart, 7 and you must inculcate them in* your sons+ and speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk on the road and when you lie down and when you get up.+8 Tie them as a reminder on your hand, and they must be like a headband on your forehead.*+9 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

(Deuteronomy 6:4-9)

12 Gather the people together,+ the men, the women, the children,* and your foreign resident who is within your cities,* in order that they may listen and learn about and fear Jehovah your God and take care to carry out all the words of this Law.

He also gavetheadmonition now having different gifts, according to the favour which was given to us , to use them accordingly:

if prophecy, according to the proportion of belief; (7) if serving, in the serving; or he who is teaching, in the teaching; (8) or he who encourages, in the encouragement; or he who is sharing, in sincerity; he who is leading, in diligence; he who shows compassion, joyously. (9) Let love be without hypocrisy. Shrink from what is wicked, cling to what is good. (10) In brotherly love, tenderly loving towards one another, in appreciation, giving preference to each other; (11) not idle in duty, ardent in spirit, serving the Master; (12) rejoicing in the expectancy, enduring under pressure, continuing steadfastly in prayer; (13) imparting to the needs of the set-apart ones, pursuing kindness towards strangers. (Romans 12:6-13)

“He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High will rest in the shadow of Shaddai. (2) I will say of Jehovah, “He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.” (3) For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler, and from the deadly pestilence. (4) He will cover you with his feathers. Under his wings you will take refuge. His faithfulness is your shield and rampart. (5) You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day;
(Psalm 91:1-5 NHEBJE)

A steep rock to build on

For the sake ofGod’s namethe Supremewill leadand guideus, for He is willing to beoursteep rockandourfortress.

Of any kind of denominationyou are,thebottom line isthatyou have to make your ownchoices andchoose tostudy theWord of God or to leave it as something you do not want to be interested in.Godis the onewho can call you for this and can leadandprovide insight. People like uscanonly be a toolin the handof God.In this modernworld ofmaterialism,there may not bemany people whoare still interestedintheWord of God,butover all the earththere are many whochoose to go on the narrowroad that leads tolife now but even more interesting to a much better life later. Theytryto follow right road and to terminatetheracesuccessfullyin order toenterthe Kingdom of God.

We asBiblescholars know that itcan cost some effort but that it is reallyworthto stayon the narrowroad! (Matthew7:13,14)Togetherwecan be strong andsupport each otherso that we willenduretogether. Therefore it is importantto dare tofollow suit, to go for itandjoinseriousBible students.In the fightthat we canperform better, together, the apostle Paul showedin hisheartfeltexhortation:

“But godliness with contentment is great gain. (7) For we brought nothing into the world, so neither can we carry anything out. (8) But having food and clothing, we will be content with that. (9) But those who are determined to be rich fall into a temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful lusts, such as drown men in ruin and destruction. (10) For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some have been led astray from the faith in their greed, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows. (11) But you, man of God, flee these things, and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, and gentleness. (12) Fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you confessed the good confession in the sight of many witnesses.” (1 Timothy 6:6-12 NHEBJE )

That life isnotthe present lifeof pain and sorrowand sufferingbrought upon usbyAdam’s sin.No,it’s the lifein God’s newworld, the paradise, which soon will become a realitywhen, after the removal of this system of things,Christ’sransomsacrificeisused for the benefitofall who loveJehovah God and hisSon.We allmustchooselife – “the real life” –everlastinglife in God’sgloriousnew world.

That we alldareproclaimtogetherthat there is only One True God to Whom we in close friendship as brothers and sisters in Christ we havetaken refuge. Together united we should not have to be ashamed because we have chosen to incline ourear to the One Who saves us, because He too was willing to hear us and to be with us.

“In you, Jehovah, I take refuge. Never let me be disappointed. (2) Deliver me in your righteousness, and rescue me. Turn your ear to me, and save me. (3) Be to me a rock of refuge to which I may always go. Give the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.” (Psalm 71:1-3 NHEBJE )

After the gathering of witches and calling the spirits on the 31st of October, people loved to be busy with the dead on the following days, celebrating All Saints and All Souls people want to frighten the spirits away. This, according many cultures can be done with making as much noise as possible and bringing flashy nights. On the other hand many find it necessary to bring the ‘sacred days for the dead’ to a good end by bringing all the death material back to dust by fire. At the end of the Autumn holiday or All Saints holiday bonfires may lit in several places.

On the question of images, Elizabeth’s initial reaction was to allow crucifixes and candlesticks and the restoration of roods, but some of the new bishops whom she had elevated protested. The determination to prevent any further restoration of “popery” was evidenced by the more thoroughgoing destruction of roods, vestments, stone altars, dooms, statues and other ornaments. Puritans delivered sermons regarding the perceived dangers of popery, while during increasingly raucous celebrations common folk burnt effigies of popular hate-figures, such as the pope.

A devout and militant Catholic

Guy Fawkes (a.k.a. Guido Fawkes), cropped detail from a contemporary engraving of the Gunpowder Plotters. The Dutch artist probably never actually saw or met any of the conspirators, but it has become a popular representation nonetheless. – National Portrait Gallery, London

Travelling soldier—mercenary would be the wrong word, Guy Fawkes (1570–1606), a devout and militant Catholic, brought in on a plan to blow up Britain’s Houses of Parliament on November 5, 1605. The family Fawkes with father Edward Fawkes (sometimes spelled Faux), a judicial court official, was required, under the state Church of England religion (now known as Anglicanism, with the Episcopal Church as its American branch), to swear an oath pledging that they were Protestants. Fawkes’s mother, Edith, like many other Catholics, put up a Protestant facade, but her nephew became a Jesuit priest and some of her relatives were recusants — English Catholics who refused to attend Protestant church services. When Edward Fawkes died, when Guy was eight, his mother showed her true sympathies by marrying another recusant, Denis (or Dionysus) Bainbridge, described by an acquaintance (according to the Gunpowder Plot Society) as “more ornamental than useful.” The family moved to a home near the village of Scotton in North Yorkshire. From that point on, Fawkes likely began to come in contact with devout Catholics who were working through official channels and also by underground means to safeguard and advance the rights of Catholics under the country’s increasingly entrenched Anglican regime.

St. Peter’s School in the city of York though having a nominally Protestant headmaster, John Pulleine (or Pulleyn), was likely a hotbed of Catholic resistance. One local noblewoman, according to Gunpowder Plot historian Antonia Fraser, called the school “Little Rome.” Fawkes, according to one source, married Pulleine’s daughter Maria and had a son, named Thomas, in 1591. Other early accounts of Fawkes’s life make no mention of the marriage, which could suggest that it was very short (perhaps with mother and child dying in childbirth) or that it did not occur at all.

Spain wanting to control Flanders and to invade England

Working as a footman to the Catholic nobleman Lord Montague, he may have met Robert Catesby, the originator of the Gunpowder Plot, through family connections during this period. Around 1593, he left England for Flanders (a Dutch-speaking region now divided among northern Belgium, France, and the Netherlands), which was then under the control of Spain, Western Europe’s great Catholic power, and he enlisted in the Spanish army. A military associate (quoted by David Herber) described Fawkes as

“a man of great piety, of exemplary temperance, of mild and cheerful demeanor, an enemy of broils and disputes, a faithful friend, and remarkable for his punctual attendance upon religious observance.”

Spain’s feared Armada had tried unsuccessfully to launch an invasion of England in 1588 trying to expand its power in the willingness to conquer the whole of Europe. Serving under the command of the Archduke Albert of Austria, Spain’s ally, Guy Fawkes fought for the Spaniards in a battle at Calais, in western France, in 1595, and he may have been wounded at the Battle of Nieuwpoort in West Flanders in 1600. It was at the continent that his assignments brought him the experience for blowing up things, like a procession of military wagons. In both these campaigns he came to the attention not only of his Spanish and Austrian commanders but also of a group of English Catholic nobles sympathetic to the Catholic side. He was recognized not only for military valour but also for his virtue and general intelligence.

From protestantism to Catholicism

After the establishment of the Church of England under King Henry VIII and a temporary and gruesome return to Catholicism under Queen Mary (“Bloody Mary”), Protestantism had become well entrenched under Elizabeth, as even the Spaniards recognized. They gave Fawkes a polite reception, but they were moving in the direction of a permanent peace with England, and Fawkes’s mission went nowhere. Meanwhile King James, suspicious of the intentions of English Catholics, sharpened his anti-Papist invective and imposed new fines on recusants.

In Brussels after his Spanish mission, Fawkes was introduced by Sir William Stanley to Tom Wintour, a Catholic soldier. Wintour or Stanley informed Fawkes of a plot under consideration by English nobleman Robert (or Robin) Catesby, whose father had undergone long imprisonment for his Catholic affiliation, and whose own militancy had deepened as he fell on hard times. Fawkes seemed the perfect foot soldier for the plan’s execution. He knew guns and explosives well, and since he had been away from England for many years, his name and face were unknown to Sir Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury and the head of the English monarchy’s secret police.

Conspiracy

Conspirators of the Gunpowder Plot. Very similar to one in National Portrait Gallery by Crispijn van de Passe the Elder

At an inn in London’s upscale Strand distric Fawkes, Catesby, Wintour, and two other conspirators met in May of 1604 to swore an oath for carrying out Catesby’s plan: to throw England into chaos by killing its king and lawmakers in a massive explosion, to install King James’s young daughter, Elizabeth, as Queen and arrange her marriage to a Catholic monarch from elsewhere in Europe, thus restoring a Catholic monarchy. The Westminster district in London’s West End was a crowded warren of streets and businesses at the time, and Fawkes/Johnson attracted little notice as he was installed as caretaker of an empty cellar of an adjoining building. By early 1605 the plotters had begun to fill the cellar with barrels of gunpowder. To disguise it they covered it with iron bars and bundles of kindling, known in British English as faggots. They had to replace the powder as it “decayed” or went stale.

November the 5th

Finally a date for the explosion was set: November 5, 1605, when King James, the House of Lords, and the House of Commons would all be in attendance in the same chamber. The Powder Treason began to unravel on the night of October 26, with the delivery of an anonymous letter to a Catholic nobleman, Lord Monteagle, advising him to concoct an excuse to avoid the opening of the Parliament session on November 5. Monteagle informed Sir Robert Cecil of the letter’s contents, and Cecil informed the King. Continuing uncertainty over who wrote the letter, together with signs that pointed to its being a forgery, have given rise over the centuries to theories that the Gunpowder Plot was devised not by Catholic militants but by Cecil himself, with the intention of permanently crippling Britain’s Catholics in the ensuing uproar. In this version of events (promoted in recent times by Francis Edwards), Fawkes and Catesby were double agents. The preponderance of historical opinion holds that the Treason was a genuine terrorist plot, but the debate continues.

Anti-Irish propaganda from Punch magazine, published in December 1867.

Whatever the case, the cellars beneath the Parliament buildings were searched on the night of November 4, and Fawkes was discovered, along with the gunpowder. Described as a very tall and desperate fellow, he gave his name as John Johnson. King James, according to Fraser, ordered that “the gentler Tortures are to be first used unto him et sic per gradus ad ima tenditur [and so by degrees proceeding to the worst],” although torture was illegal in England at the time, and had been since the signing of the Magna Carta, the 1215 document that restricted the power of the English kings. Fawkes was hung from a wall in manacles and probably placed on the rack, a notorious device that slowly stretched a prisoner’s body until he lost the use of his limbs. After two days, Fawkes gave up the names of his coconspirators, all but one of whom were tracked down and executed or killed. Prior to his execution by hanging in Westminster’s Old Palace Yard on January 31, 1606, Fawkes was barely able to sign his own name on a confession. After dying on the scaffold, he was drawn and quartered.

Restrictions harsher than any they had yet experienced were placed on English Catholics by King James, and November 5 became a national holiday in England, known as Firework Night, Bonfire Night, or Guy Fawkes Day. In the colonial United States it was celebrated as Pope Day, featuring a ceremony in which the Pope was burned in effigy, but the holiday was gradually absorbed into the Halloween festivities that occurred a few days earlier. Guy Fawkes Day evolved away from its roots in Britain, where the targets of the fire might include contemporary figures despised by the public. As part of a group of anti-terrorist measures, the cellars of the Houses of Parliament are still searched by guards each year before the legislature opens in November.

The execution of Guy Fawkes’ (Guy Fawkes), by Claes (Nicolaes) Jansz Visscher, given to the National Portrait Gallery, London in 1916.

Remembrance night of terrorism acts or ‘bonefires’ as cleansing ritual

An effigy of Guy Fawkes, burnt on a Guy Fawkes Night bonfire

Celebrations are held throughout the United Kingdom (including non-Catholic communities in Northern Ireland), and in some other parts of the Commonwealth. In the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, 5 November is commemorated with bonfires and firework displays, and it is officially celebrated in South Africa.*

Non religious people love to have a remembrance of the fires in which bones were burned. The “banefire” was the place were the dead were brought together to be burned so that no deceases could spread. It is the sheol or hell spoken of in the Bible, which was at the Biblical times a place outside the cities were the fire was kept burning day and night so that in case of a serious infection the spreading of the decease could stopped soon enough to avoid further deaths. Also the ones (bane) had to undergo a fast decay, which could be done by a fire.

In the ancient and present druid religions, bonfires were and are still held between 31 October and 5 November to celebrate Samhain and to burn the bones of the slaughtered livestock they had stored for the winter months. People and their livestock would often walk between two bonfires as a cleansing ritual, and the bones of slaughtered livestock were cast into its flames. In several pagan circles the tradition of the bonfire is till kept alive. Some modern day Druids and Pagans see bonfire night as a significant celebration to end the harvest festival. In Belgium and Ireland they are mostly lit on the 31st of October. In those countries they are seen as a reaction against those who are religious and believe in Christ and/or in One Creator. Christian symbols are burned to give a sign to abolish them and with it the faith in such symbols or in what it represents. The burning cross should give a clear visible sign to every one of how they hate the figure of Jesus Christ and everything around it. Pernicious weeds, diseased material is put on the bonfire to show how man can conquer the bad things in nature and how he can be stronger than the natural things which surrounds him. Lots of people find it a nice way to show the gods of nature and the bad spirits that they can control the earth and can frighten any spirit which they do not want to have around them, because if they would come close , they (man) would be there to put them in the fire.

For sure Christians do neither have to celebrate terrorism acts nor papal celebrations, nor feasts for making souls afraid or for giving gods a sign. Participating in such festivities as a sign of anti-catoliscism or a as sign of anti-protestantism would not give a sign of openness to other believers or other Christians and of forgivingness for what had happened in the past.

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* In Northern Ireland, the term “Bonfire Night” can refer to the Eleventh Night celebrations of 11 July. Like 5 November, this Bonfire Night also has its roots in the sectarian struggle between Protestants and Catholics. It celebrates the Battle of the Boyne of 1690, in which the ProtestantWilliam of Orange defeated the CatholicJames II. The 23 June Bonfire Night in Ireland has its origins in a religious celebration and originally featured prayers for bountiful crops. {“Bonfire repair bill revealed”. BBC News. 15 July 2003. Retrieved 27 May 2011.; Haggerty, Bridget. “St. John’s Eve in old Ireland”. Irish Culture and Customs.}

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This Day in History: October 30th- A King, His Wife, and The Act of Supremacy (todayifoundout.com)
Pope Clement feared Queen Katherine’s powerful nephew The Holy Roman Emperor right up the road a lot more than the King of England across the ocean, so he put off dealing with the situation.
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The Protestants in the realm who thought they won a major theological victory were sorely disappointed, because the King deviated very little from traditional Catholic doctrine or ritual. Henry just wanted to be the boss – and to have access to all of the Church’s vast riches in his kingdom, which he plundered with great gusto.
+How the King James Bible Came About

2000 years of Christianity : what happened? – Part IV – 1200AD – 1600AD (biblethingsinbibleways.wordpress.com)
1549: Book of Common Prayer released – At the death of Henry VIII, the archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer, moved forward with the English reformation. Images were removed from churches, private confessions to priests were discontinued, and the clergy allowed to marry. But mass was still said in Latin. So Cranmer moved to create a liturgy that was pleasing to Protestants as well as Catholics. The book of common prayer was born.
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1559: John Knox makes final return to Scotland – A Scottish clergyman and writer who was a leader of the Protestant Reformation, founded the Presbyterian denomination in Scotland, helping to write the new confession of faith and the ecclesiastical order for the newly created reformed church in Scotland called “the Kirk”.
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With the sale of indulgences, the reformation would officially begin at the hand of Martin Luther and the likes of Ulrich Zwingli. Protestantism which spread quickly even with heavy opposition from the Catholic church, even leading to wars between the two groups, would also give birth to the Anglican Church in England, a separate entity from the church in Rome. While Calvin’s teachings were soaked in by Protestantism, a counter reformation was underway inside the catholic church which did not reform many of its earlier teachings. While the Jesuits traveled on missions programs with spain and portugal as they extended their land overseas, many reformers such as Ridley, Latimer and Cranmer were executed for their beliefs – but Protestantism could not be stamped out, and would become one of the largest sects in Christianity – distinctively different from Catholicism, although borrowing and having many of its roots in the teachings of Rome.

Repost for Today (supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com)The king had declared himself Head of the Church in England and had repudiated its spiritual allegiance to the Pope. The suppression and spoliation of the Religious Orders followed, but the Knights of St. John were not at first included in the general ruin. In 1539, two knights of the English Tongue, Blessed Adrian Fortescue and Ven. Thomas Dingley, a nephew of Sir William Weston, Grand Prior of England, were martyred on Tower Hill for denying the Royal Supremacy. By Letters Patent 7th July, 1539, Henry reminded the knights of the English Tongue that he was a Protector of the Order : and it was his will that in future every appointment must be confirmed by him, and that he was to receive the first year’s revenue of the office.

The Fallibility Of Papal Infallibility (psalm115three.com)if papal infallibility has only been exercised twice, how can Catholic apologists claim that the canon of scripture, Christ’s deity, the Trinity, etc. have also been infallibly declared? How can they claim that some rulings of Popes and councils are infallible, while others aren’t, without having a reasonable and consistent standard by which to make such a distinction? For example, if Pope Pius IX’s Immaculate Conception decree is infallible, why wouldn’t Pope Boniface VIII’s Unam Sanctam decree, which errs repeatedly, also be infallible? Both decrees were issued by Popes, both decrees define doctrine, and both decrees use authoritative language. Or when the Fourth Lateran Council dogmatizes transubstantiation, why is that accepted as infallible, while the same council’s offering of indulgences to those who participate in a Crusade and “exterminate heretics” isn’t accepted as infallible? Catholics are unreasonable and inconsistent in how they define papal infallibility.
+The Dislike of Catholicism: Understanding the Holy in the Catholic Tradition – 5 – Psychological reasonsSome Christians routinely advocate angry, hateful behavior. And if they see any vice among individual Catholics they arguably project their own anger – and other shortcomings – onto Catholicism as a whole. This type of Christian is self-perceived as genuine and true while Catholics are deemed invalid.
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The self-righteous Christian may try to engage others in heated messaging wars over specific points of doctrine. With these individuals, the ideal of loving within the mystical body of Christ gets twisted into something more like negative attention seeking, stemming from an unresolved personal issue.

Douthat: Conservatives Will Take Their Ball and Go Home if Francis Changes “Their” Church (religiondispatches.org)
If the church had been evolving doctrine in a more gradual, holistic manner over the past several decades, the changes being proposed now wouldn’t seem so dramatic. But a pair of popes—John Paul and his long-time doctrinal henchman Benedict—conspired to freeze the natural development of Catholic teaching. They took uber-conservative readings of key issues, like the ordination of women and the “intrinsically disordered” nature of gay Catholics, and then declared them virtually infallible, so that any future evolution was by its very nature heretical.To conservatives, Catholic doctrine has become like a game of capture the flag—if you can hold onto the flag long enough, you win, regardless of the advisability of the original teaching.

Robert Catesby is a well known figure in English History. He was born in 1673 and died in 1705 at the young age of 32. He was the son of Sir William Catesby of Lapworth and Anne Coughton. Catesby was directly related to the Richard III through his father. He was 6th in the line of succession.

Catesby’s father was a staunch Catholic and a prime supporter of the Jesuit mission. His religious belief led to his arrest in 1580. Richard was only 8 years old at that time. His father was tried along side Lord Vaux and his brother-in-law Sir Thomas Tresham, for harboring of a Jesuit, Father Edmund Campion. This arrest and trial had a traumatic effect on Richard who grew up as a strong supporter of the Catholic mission.
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Despite his religious inclinations Catesby was held in high esteem by both Catholics and Protestants and was part of the glamorous circle that surrounded the court. This affluence and popularity played a great part in protecting him from the rigors of recusancy.

When Queen Elizabeth I fell ill in 1596, as a precautionary measure Catesby and some of his friends from his circle namely John Wright, his brother Christopher and Francis Tresham were arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London.

Death by Quill, the Parliamentary Act of Attainder (englishhistoryauthors.blogspot.com)
Thomas Cromwell simply did what Thomas Cromwell was highly regarded for. He drafted a law forbidding the foretelling of the monarch’s death, filing Acts of Attainder against the Holy Maid of Kent and her inner circle. How can one be convicted for violating a law before it actually became a law? Obviously, that mattered not. Parliament enacted sentence as judge and jury. Elizabeth Barton, Holy Maid of Kent and five men close to her subsequently condemned, they all were executed at Tyburn — problem solved.

Could We Please Have Better New York Times Columnists?: Historical Lack-of-Literacy Ediiton (delong.typepad.com)
the sixteenth-century Catholic Church lost England not because Popes condemned Henry VIII Tudor’s marriage to Ann Boleyn as adulterous, but because Pope Pius V rejected the legality of the Third Succession Act:
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Pope Pius V, in Regnans in Excelsis, rejected the legality of the Third Succession Act. He commanded Catholics on pain of excommunication to overthrow Queen Elizabeth I Tudor. Regnans in Excelsis declares that it is not the Crown-in-Parliament that decides upon the line of succession to the throne of England, but the Pope.

For Pippa Jay, who is Vampire-obsessed since childhood and Dark Shadows reruns, it may look normal to look into the Vampire stories and traditions. We can imagine she with many others looks forward to All Hallows’ Eve or All Saints’ Eve (now better known these days as Halloween) the yearly celebration she thinks is dedicated to remembering the dead. As you could see in the previous posting it has much more to do than remembering the dead.

Every year people may find their Halloween heroes and heroines back in the old adventures but also in all new adventures. In Autumntime the storms raging around the house gets many people loving to be kept on the edge of their seat all throughout the books they are reading or all through the horror-films reaching our living room by the little screen which has become quit big by the years.

One cannot think of horror and not bring up Richard Donner’s The Omen. A film made during the turbulent late 1970’s when the world was literally on the brink of ripping itself apart. The Omen was a film that told the tale of the birth of the Anti-Christ which would herald the coming of the Apocalypse. Outside of William Friedkin’s The Exorcist there wasn’t a film during this era which put the fear of God’s Judgment on the faithful than The Omen. {Horror Song of the Day: Ave Satani (by Jerry Goldsmith)}

Christian Coma de Black Veil Brides (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In that film like in some others we can see that one of the most holy rituals in Roman Catholicism was taken and inverted in to praising Satan instead of the Virgin Mary. It was a fellow choir-master in London, close to the source you would say, who made effective use of the Gregorian chant in the “Ave Satani”. That ‘black masses’ are back in the running may proof the record industry which brings groups like Black Veil Brides whose album ‘Black Veil Brides IV’ is scheduled to be released later this month. Between now and the 12th of December Black Veil Brides is on the ‘black mass tour’, along with Falling In Reverse around the rest of Europe and America.

Traditional Ahrimanism has birthed from Zoroastrianism, Zurvanism, Vedic Hinduism, and Yezidism. The reason is because Zoroastrianism is the center of duality that influences all major world religions particularly in the west. Do note, that Zoroaster was a fugitive from India which is why he demonized the Vedic Hindu Deva into Zoroastrianism Daeva. Zoroaster brings the first antithesis, the Devil, into existence. {OU Student’s Interview}

What the old student tells is very familiar to the impression we may get when we look at the many Halloween participants in Flanders. They love to decorate the trees and the whole surroundings where they live, giving a sign to the others about their love of the dark and unknown powers. It looks like they want to give the community a very clear statement that they do not want to do anything with the traditional church. When questioned they also say they do not want to talk about ‘belief‘ and do not belief in ‘God‘. For many of them the purpose of the Halloween events and the Black Mass is to help relieve themselves and their ‘beloved’ Halloween participants of the burden of the cross. for most of them it is clearly a rejection of Christianity.

Depending on the person, will depend on how many its done to deprogram and reject Christianity from their subconscious mind. It is a blasphemy ritual and is a tool to help with the conversion of religion. Though the ritual is crude and out right silly, it does have its place as a serious tool to free people’s minds. {OU Student’s Interview}

With many others, such groups like to get people far away from Christendom and for sure would not like to have people finding Christianity. Peter Turner, who does not believe in the literal existence of God, and many others have their blog to lure others away from the Divine Creator. He writes:

“A warm welcome to Zingcreed, the Christian-atheist blog that’s on the reading list of students doing the ‘Socialist Theory’ course in the Politics dept of NYU. It’s also read by discriminating nuns and Christian radicals in the UK. If you want to have a say in the direction this polemic should take – get in touch!” {Satanic Panic!}

He wrote a non-theist creed encapsulating many of the points that might be supported by a “christian atheist” (see wikipedia and wikiquote), a “jesuist” (Wikipedia’s term), “Jesusist” (Anarchopedia’s term) or “Jesusite” (Philip Pullman’s term). {The Thinking Behind The Zing Creed} for him and many others Jehovah himself was no more a historical reality than Zeus or Thor were. {Throwing the baby with the bathwater}

For him and many others it is good news that in the groves of academe various dedicated men and women (of all faiths and none) ‘have been merrily winnowing away for the last 200 years’ and they are perhaps very happy to see that lots of people are finding more amusement in folkloric activities. The people enjoying the Halloween fun, are they than not grown up kids? Or why do they prefer to spend their time in making costumes and in preparations for the Halloween events?

Gay people may find the gimmick-free piece of theatre with something to say, and not afraid to say it with gusto for the ‘Black Mass’ by Edward Bond at the London Theatre in New Cross. {Two Shedstheatre}

For certain Catholics the Satanic masses and Satanic events are not liked at all. They have taken seriously the dark and dangerous spirits being invited into their community.How they are afraid of getting bad spirits in their centres is indicated by the reaction of Roman Catholic Archbishop Paul S. Coakley and a priest who performed “prayers of exorcism” to rid the Civic Center Music Hall in Oklahoma City, of evil spirits that may have lingered there after a satanic “black mass” on Sunday, Septembre 21, by members of the Dakhma of Angra Mainyu Syndicate, a Satanic sect led by Adam Daniels. {Exorcism after Black Mass at the Civic Center Music Hall, Mysterious heartland}

Despite the cloudy Sunday evening, Hundreds of people stood in front of the Civic Center, 201 N Walker, Oklahoma City. The black mass leader said that the purpose of the black mass was to mock the Catholic Church so that people would not be afraid of it. Many different religious groups came together in protest. Including the well known Westboro Baptist Church. WBC came to protest the protesters. One of WBC members shouted from a megaphone, that Catholic Church were idols worshippers and that they were child molesters. Which the Vatican tries to conceal. The Hebrew Israelites Marched in stomping and yelling. They read from the Kings bible and tried convince the African Americans and the Latinos that they were the true Israelites. Many Caucasians didn’t take to kind to that message. One Caucasian lady tried to put her hands on on one of the Israelites head. The woman had a look on here face like how dare you tell her that her Jesus is black.{Black mass draws crowd of protesters}

After their leader Johnathan Phelps died, the extremely ideological church, known for their very fundamental outlook with their leader and as the “God Hates Fags” church showed it is still going strong. They find a just view of afflicting incidents is necessary to Christian behaviour and exercise under them; and that view is to be obtained only by faith, not by sense.

When we do not properly look at the crooks in our lots, as to what they are, why they are there, and what we should therefore do, we get into worlds of trouble. And a mixture of right thinking and fleshly analysis will simply trick us.

All those actions show many are tricked. The Roman archbishop said about the Black Mass being performed in the centre:

We anticipated this would be a concern for those visiting the Civic Center, and we’ve received many questions about the safety of the building following the satanic ritual. To address those concerns, we visited the venue the next morning to pray prayers of exorcism over the place and to pray the prayers for cleansing.

This clearly shows that that church sincerely believes, like the other parties involved, that demons are active spirits endangering this world. For the Catholic Church and some others Satan is the Prince of Darkness which laughs at the Holy Father’s efforts to drive him away and to keep his flock away from him. According to the Catholic church the casting out of demons and the healing of the sick and the lame were two of the great facets of the apostolic commission that Jesus gave to his followers, but the practice of performing an exorcism on candidates for baptism was first recorded by the church father Hippolytus (c. 170–c. 235) in third-century Rome. The priest or layman instructing those who would join the church was instructed to lay his hands upon the heads of the catechumens and pray. It was then supposed that it would be impossible for a demonic entity to remain quiet and unnoticed at this time, thereby betraying its presence and presenting the unfortunate human host for the process of exorcism. {Exorcism, Gale Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained, 2003}

Several churches also tell their flock it is dangerous to look at pictures of demons or ghosts or to read stories about such creatures.

This year the television may brake the tradition by not screening so many ghost and horror films. On the menu this year are the 1939 classic Hunchback of Notre Dame with Charles Laughton as Quasimodo. The forth Bourne film ‘The Bourne Legacy’ shall not captivate many viewers, whilst the remake of the cultfilm Fright Night of 1985 was not a must, the 2011 movie may be for many hilarious. Further on the screen on October 31 are ‘Inception’ (SF-actionfil 2010), ‘the Pelican Brief’ (Thriller 1993), ‘a l’Origine’ (French Drama 2009), ‘True blood’, and further the weekly series plus the so called romantic comedy for Woody Alan fans ‘Midnight in Paris’ (2011), ‘My Fake Fiance’ (2009) and family drama’s like ‘A Family divided'(1995), ‘The Wrong Woman’ (2013), ‘Das Traumhotel Marokko’ (2014) and the war-drama ‘Akte Grïninger/Grüningers Fall’ (2013). It looks like we are not treated with a few days of monsters, blood and violence. (What a good change.)

According the Westboro Baptist Church

There is a certain train of providential events that falls to each of us in this world. . And that is our lot, being allotted to us by the sovereign God, our Creator and Governor, in whose hand our breath is, and whose are all our ways. This train of events is widely different to different persons, according to the will and pleasure of God, who orders men’s condition in the world in a great variety.

In that train of events, some fall out, cross to us, and against the grain; and these make the crook in our lot. While we are here, there will be cross events, as well as agreeable ones, in our lot and condition. Sometimes things are agreeably gliding on; but, by and by, there is some incident which alters that course, grates us, and pains us, as, when we have made a wrong step we begin to limp.

Some men’s crooks have not been made aware to them yet. Some men’s crooks, by volume or by intensity, are greater than other men’s

– this is providence. But the crook, or crooks, in a man’s life cannot, to our minds, measure the volume or grievousness of any man’s sin. This is folly. Think Lazarus or John the Baptist.

For the WBC it is clear that ‘God Hates Belgium‘ because Belgium was the second country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage thereby proving that her people are wicked sinners before God exceedingly ala ancient Sodom and it is a place without God where prostitution is legal and

the fag-enabling violence towards God parallels the antediluvian world, and will bring full and final, fiery destruction to this present world. {God hates Belgium}

The usually naked female “altar” was having lingerie; and vinegar was being substituted for urine

They too believe in Satan and consider that

a Satanic lie tricks the vile sinner into believing that there is no Day of Judgment and that mankind can live any way they want, with no accountability, and that everyone goes to Heaven. It is the same lie that he told to Eve at the Garden of Eden – if you violate the express direction of a sovereign God and eat of the fruit (see Genesis 3:4) “ye shall not surely die” – you can violate all the commandments of God, and don’t worry “ye shall not surely die” everyone goes to heaven anyway.

For the WBC the reason God blessed the United States at its foundation is because the Puritans lived and breathed the Commandments, the Bible, and the fear of God.

The Puritans are gone, except a few of us who still love these doctrines, because they are the doctrines of the Old and New Testament.

they say.

But at the same time they like to bring fear over many people and preach damnation.

They are aware that

The saints of God are told to be sober minded. However, the children of the flesh have no such direction. God says woe unto them. He says that they have erred through their wine and strong drink and have gone out of he way.

The New Testament says that the sins and the works of the flesh include such things as excess of wine, reveling and banqueting and that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

The New Testament says that people are to walk circumspectly and not as fools and that they are to be filled with the Spirit not drunk with wine.

The night of the 31st of October unto the 1st of November is also used to have special parties where all sorts of alcoholic drinks and drugs can be used in abundance. This naturally makes that church annoyed, but also should us have to react that such actions can not be taken by people who claim to be Christian.

Perhaps there is good reason in them calling the Roman Catholic clergy weak priests and saying that the preachers and churches of their country are afraid to run off members and donors are afraid to address the issue, so the drunkenness continues and they love to have it so. For them America and even Belgium Holland, the United Kingdom and many Western countries may be doomed for her drunkenness, drugs, reveling and blatant hedonism.

The playing around ghosts, spirits and devils the last few years became again popular. Halloween is considered the high-day for connecting with those spirits, demons and devils and ideal for casting spells on others.

Satanic activity tends to come and go in waves, with mostly hereditary Satanists carrying the tradition forward in secret during quieter times. With each new surge they seem to get more sophisticated but also become more blatantly obvious about what they are doing. This time the various covens and lodges are organizing. They are combining forces on a level not seen in generations and if we don’t act fast, they may be here to stay. If these are truly the End Times, as many of us believe, the mainstream tolerance of Luciferianism is the final stage that allows for the rise of the Antichrist.

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Some people are lured into these groups by the thought of participating in a cause but damn their souls in the process. It may seem like fun and games to some but to those at the top it is very serious. Keep in mind that some people joining these groups are well meaning people. Others will simply be acting out rebellion. It is important that we understand this when we witness to them.

Related articles

These days, many have the feeling that Halloweenhas become more popular, especially among the younger generations, than Italy’s very own Carnevale, those two weeks right before Lent when Italians get crazy about dressing up and playing tricks on their friends. Sounds familiar? Yes, it does remind a lot of what Americans do on Halloween. Carnevale has plenty in common with Halloween and not only because it’s a holiday with a penchant for tricks and costumes: there is special food only cooked this time of the year, too and, of course, the Carri di Carnevale, some of them (think of Venice and Viareggio) known all over the world.

In Italy, however, Halloween has been making amazing progress over the past few years. And according to research, the search term “Halloween” comes up more often on Italian online searches than “Carnevale”. Are Italians all becoming Halloween fanatics?

25 Creepy Details From Your Favorite Horror Films You May Not Know (list25.com)
Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the cameras when the lights turn off, especially in films that scare us and freak us out? Do the actors of such films take their roles as seriously as they appear to onscreen? What about all those little, spicy details that most of us usually never hear about? Do the horror film crews party and have fun while shooting a film with such gruesome effects? Find out with these 25 creepy details from your favorite horror films you may not know.

I have always suspected that there is a reason why all of our best holidays come in the fall and winter. Days get shorter, and it’s cold and wet out, and all the animals go to bed, and all the trees, like, die or whatever. Winter is a hard, shitty time of year.

And so, whoever schedules this kind of thing had the bright idea of livening things up with a series of genuinely excellent holidays, so that just when you’re sinking into the swamp of seasonal affective disorder, someone shows up with a casserole full of yams covered in marshmallows and buys you another few weeks of relative happiness.
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What follows is a list of 13 great Halloween movies to watch as we approach Halloween. No, these are not the 13 best or greatest or even scariest horror movies (although some of them certainly are among the best and greatest and scariest). But I figure a horror movie needs a few things to be truly Halloween-appropriate:

Things To Do In London: Halloween 2014 (londonist.com)
a.o.: a post-apocalypse-themed party, macabre party, circus-themed Halloween party, follow the blood trail, avoid the zombies, find the monsters and hear some spooky stories, Celebrate the scariest night of the year within the Gothic surroundings …

Top 10 Halloween Symbols and What They Mean (toptenz.net)
The significance of corn husks and stalks of wheat is pretty straightforward. Halloween comes in the autumn, the traditional festival of Samhain celebrated the end of summer and the end of the harvest, so these images are meant to represent the end of harvest and the beginning of winter.
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the Celtic festival of Samhain marked the transition between “light” days and “dark” days – so the black likely represents those dark days of winter when there are fewer daylight hours to attend to the fields and crops. Of course, the modern secular Halloween retailers have certainly pushed the orange-and-black as official colors of Halloween, so such an explanation seems weak, but it’s true.

17 New Horror Movies to See Before Halloween (movieweb.com)
this weekend begins a month long barrage of horror movies set to invade our local cineplex. Some of these movies will even be available on VOD in the weeks leading up to Halloween! We’re seeing more original thrillers this year, as new titles hurry to occupy the slots vacated by holiday perennials Saw and Paranormal Activity. We have plenty to choose from, with creature features and slasher flicks galore, all spanning the gamut between pitch black comedy to blood red terror. There are spin-offs, reboots, and even an old favorite making its return for a much-deserved 10th anniversary celebration.

Timing Is Everything: The Unfortunate Case Of Halloween III (badassdigest.com)Halloween made a bundle, and was for 20 years the most profitable independent film of all time. Small wonder, then, that by 1981 the low-budget film industry was lousy with filmmakers planting flags (and pitchforks and machetes) on every holiday on the calendar, lining up for some of that easy slasher money.

17 New Horror Movies to See Before Halloween (cinvox.com)
New Line Cinema’s supernatural thriller Annabelle begins before the evil was unleashed. John Form has found the perfect gift for his expectant wife, Mia, a beautiful, rare vintage doll in a pure white wedding dress. But Mia’s delight with Annabelle doesn’t last long. On one horrific night, their home is invaded by members of a satanic cult, who violently attack the couple. Spilled blood and terror are not all they leave behind. The cultists have conjured an entity so malevolent that nothing they did will compare to the sinister conduit to the damned that is now… Annabelle!

Satanists- La Vey or otherwise, have no good intentions toward humanity as a whole. Even people who are atheistic and examine their overall teachings see that they are not beneficial to people. If you follow Satanism you will freely violate what are considered the basic human rights of others.

The sun did not yet go under for the Summer 2014 or Sinterklaas (Saint Nicholas), Sancta Claus, the Santa, and all Winter presents were already to be found in the shops. In Flanders in May we had already a garden centre which presented a huge Christmas show, with all the new decoration gadgets for December 2014. That month there was also lots of protest having to be confronted as consumer with the Christmas period, whilst Summer had yet to start.

Sinterklaas and his servants in Amsterdam

In the Low countries we for centuries do have a children festival where on the night of 5 December presents are brought by a so called saint Nicolas and his servants who are called “zwarte pieten” “black guys” (often translated in English as Black Peters or “Black Pete“, thinking a Piet is the name of a Peter or Pete instead of the slang for a worker or guy, a toff, a bigwig or “Johnnie”). This labourer who helps to make, transport and delivers the presents by going through the chimneys, by which he becomes so black, has been the dispute already since 2012, but got in real high discussion last year. We thought we had seen it all, but this year many communities bear the consequences from the zwarte Piet” (“Black Pete”). They are afraid to have black persons standing next to Sinterklaas on the ship or on the road, on horses close to Sinterklaas risking to receive a fine or to be put in jail. Those against the colour of the ‘black petes’ have clearly forgotten that the white bishop had worked in Turkey and brought his helpers from there en from Spain, where he found Moors or Moroccan people who were willing to help him to bring goods to the poor and need, plus to the small children who could be made happy with a surprise.

Amsterdam Mayor Eberhard van der Laan had to hear in July that the Amsterdam District Court found the character of Zwarte Piet a racist caricature.. He was advised to reconsider his licensing of the annual Sinterklaas parade where the Saint enters the city on a boat with several balck sevants on the deck. In August van der Laan got back to them and said that the character of Zwarte Piet would change over the next four years; the black paint, red lips and afro wigs would be ‘toned down’.

On television several shopkeepers declared even not willing to sell black greasepaint these months, because it could be associated with them liking a Black Pete, and as such being ‘discriminating black people’. What those people against the black Pete do not want to see is that the blackness of the person has nothing to do with discrimination or by preferring black slaves. Zwarte Piet or Black Pete is a helper and not a slave of Saint Nicholas. Either on the 5th of December (in Holland) or the 6th of December (Holland and Belgium -except some parts of Flanders, Holland, North France and German districts, where they have Sint Maarten on the 11th of November in) several children in the Low Countries look forward for SaintNicholas’Day (6 December) where they can have a day where they can play freely with their presents of ‘the holy man’.

The whole situations seems to get out of hand when we do hear that even people are receiving death treats on both camps. In August the judicial advisor to the anti-Zwarte Piet movement, Frank King, removed himself from the judicial process around the issue after receiving several death threats, the Algemeen Dagblad reported. In an interview with the AD, King says that his heart is still in the case, and that he may get involved again some time.

Every one should have to have the right to have a defence layer or professional advisor, not having to mean that this adviser totally agrees with the person he talks for. from Leiden is done. Frank King believes that there is some kind of schism between what he thinks he is doing, and what others think he’s doing.

“I seem myself as lawyer of the counter-movement against Zwarte Piet. But the supporters see that differently. They now see me as the face of the counter-movement. And are directing their anger at me.”

Recently, the lawyer has received threats and abuse on all levels of communication. He receives the worst by mail. He is threatened, and he is abused because he has parents from Suriname.

“One mail said that I should have been put on a 17th century slave ship, just like my ancestors.”

King has had enough of the abuse, as well as the case, which is taxing in time. Though King does emphasize that he is proud of his involvement, and proud of the progress made.

Geert Wilders and his followers do have a problem with coloured people and made it that several Dutch people have become weary about the black coloured people and traditional black figures. In Belgium and Holland or the Netherlands we even do not know any more what we are allowed to say for a person with an other skin than the Caucasian race. There was a time we were not allowed to say ‘zwarte’ (‘black’) any more and had to say ‘neger’ (niger) but then this was not as seen as polite any more so ‘negro type’ and ‘negroïde’ were introduced. After a while this was not done any more and we had to use “immigrant” (“immigrant”) but soon this was considered to be a sobriquet and was to be replaced with “allochtoon” (foreign, alien, allochthonous), which is now also nearly becoming a nickname or giving a sign of ‘giving the other person the stigma’ of being a ‘profiteer’. This really indicates in our regions we are getting a real race problem.

Classic drawing of Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet (Saint Nicholas and Black Pete) every young person in the Low Countries formerly grew up with

For centuries at schools across the country, children sang songs referring to the skin tone and character of the black servant “…even if I’m black as coal I mean well…”, “Saint Nicholas, enter with your black servant”, etc,. Many object that in some old songs about Zwarte Piet, he is presented as not being a very clever boy, even being a little bit stupid, a little bit clumsy, more akin to a child than an adult, the same generalisations previously applied to black people, but which can no longer be made explicitly.

Now nothing may be black any more or it would be associated with denigration. As a joke in 2012 already a funny video was introduced where a “zwarte piet” was presented as a worker you could hire or buy to do all the little and harder works in the household and at the office or could even be used as you masseur or “puppy” or “doll” in bed.

The whole situation became so ludicrous that several funny video’s turn up and even companies are making advertisement spots, like we could see one, last night for fund recruitment for cancer treatment, where we could see a “Zwarte Pieten” training school in Africa which had lost so much money because nobody wanted a black Pete any more, they nearly could continue working but a solution was found having new recruits with white bold children wanting to learn for ‘piet'[(Sorry no video available of this (yet)].

Concerning supermarkets not willing to present anything any more which refers to ‘Zwarte Piet’ a satirical video was already placed on Youtube. It was first presented on ThePowNewsofOctober 9, 2014: TheAlbertHeijnwantsZwarte Piet “wegjorissen” (take them out of the picture), but thehelpersare notpleased with it and do not want to give up their job, which they like very much. Therefore a boycott was set up before the Alber Heijn supermarkets by the helpers of Sinterklaas (Saint Nicholas)inAppie,Oostzaan.

Related articles

Geert Wilders wants mandatory blackface at Dutch festival (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
If Wilders wants to ban changing songs’ lyrics, then he will have very much work to do. Throughout history, old songs have been adapted with new lyrics. Protestant churches in the Netherlands and elsewhere have changed the lyrrics of their hymns and psalms frequently. Does Wilders want to jail the Protestant dignitaries responsible for that? He can’t jail all of them, as most are already dead. The Belgian national anthem’s lyrics have changed many times.

It’s been a month since Amsterdam Mayor Eberhard van der Laan announced his decision to cancel Christmas. Or at least that’s how Anneka Hendriks laughingly describes it to me. Hendriks is one of the hundreds of people in Amsterdam who enjoy painting their faces black, donning afro wigs and gold hoop earrings, and celebrating the festive season by masquerading as Zwarte Piet (Dutch for ‘Black Pete’).

‘Hundreds’ is a conservative estimate; it’s probably more like thousands or tens of thousands when the rest of the Netherlands is taken into account.

The Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands has announced that he will be organising a consultation on the role that ‘Black Petes’ should play during the festive opening of the Sinterklaas season this year.

Minister Lodewijk Asscher plans to bring relevant parties together to discuss possible changes to the controversial tradition ahead of the televised event on 15 November. The talks will include the national broadcaster and the council of Gouda, the host town.

Asscher says: “Last year things were very polarised. Everyone should be able to enjoy the festivities again.”
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The Dutch have indeed taken a clear stance in defence of their beloved Pete. The Prime Minister Mark Rutte reflected the feelings of the majority of the population when he responded to criticisms by saying: “Black Pete, that already says it, he’s black. We can’t change much about that”.

Dutch ‘Zwarte Piet’: Innocent Holiday Tradition or Inadvertent Racism? (ny.thedailydigest.org)
When I was a little kid (“little” being ages 10 through 17), I lived in the Netherlands Antilles and in the Netherlands. That was back in the 50s.
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I remember them (sometimes there were dozens of them) running and clowning around with their burlap sacks — scaring the daylights out of some little kids might be a better term — in parades, shopping centers and, as legend had it, coming down the chimney while you were sleeping.

They were Sinterklaas’ knechten (servants) who would help Sinterklaas deliver sweets and gifts to those kids who had behaved throughout the year and would leave only a lump of coal for those children who had not been very nice. Legend and rumor also had it that they would stuff kids who had been naughty and bad into their burlap sacks and haul them back to Spain, or Morocco, or Turkey or wherever current folklore had it that the Zwarte Pieten came from.

From Forbes, “The Unbearable Whiteness of Piet-ing: Dutch Santa’s Blackface Elves,” by John Giuffo (Contributor), on 4 December 2012 — Christmastime in Amsterdam has a special kind of magic, and a unique kind of controversy.

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White lights slide down buildings and arch across shopping streets, multiplying their twinkle in canal reflections. No garish multi-color, animatronic ego contests anywhere. You will hear Christmas music, but you’re not assaulted, and dreams of restraining orders against Bing Crosby never fill your head (unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said of his children). No one is trampled in shopping frenzies, no one gets arrested for assaulting line-cutters, and the gift giving comes in early December, separate from the more low-key holiday of the 25th. Family members write sardonic poems for each other. Poems! Glühwein – a sort of hot Christmas sangria – warms hands and bellies. And Sinterklaas arrives not on a reindeer-pulled sleigh laden with loot, but on a white horse, accompanied by a small cohort of his helpers, the Zwarte Pieten, or Black Petes – white revelers coated in blackface.

Virtual Advent Tour & Giveaway: The Dutch Celebration of Sinterklaas (leeswammes.wordpress.com)
Sinterklaas has been a tradition in the Netherlands for hundreds of years. Originally, this bishop came to bring money to the poor, but these days it’s a children’s celebration.
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Just like lots of children all over the world believe in Santa Claus, in the Netherlands it’s Sinterklaas they believe in and usually stop believing in around 7 or 8 years’ of age.
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Zwarte Piet has sweets in his bag (although in the old days he would use his bag to transport naughty children back to Spain!), notably pepernoten, which are small, slightly spicy biscuits (cookies). Usually Zwarte Piet will throw these around and kids collect them from the floor (when outdoors they get a fistful in their hand).

Sinterklaas, A Historically Correct (But Politically Incorrect) Children’s Tradition (urbantimes.co)
The Dutch picture the character of ‘Zwarte Piet’ (translated Black Pete) as helper with a controversial black African look: blackface, curly wig, red lips, sometimes Creole earrings. The outfit is colourful, topped of by a cap with feathers and a ruffle like a Renaissance page.
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This year, the usual discussion has been overrun by the decision of the former Dutch colony Suriname to ban Sinterklaas completely. Up until now Sinterklaas had been celebrated in Suriname the same way as in Holland: with a white priest coming from Spain on a boat with his black helpers… Evidently, this custom doesn’t fit in a country where white people only account for 5% of the population.

be what you want to be (piadrent.blogspot.com)
The helpers are called ‘Black Petes’ and they are funny and a bit stupid.

This may have been fine half a century ago, but in today’s day we find that discriminative and offensive. So there is a restyling movement for Black Petes happening right now. First, we will be calling them Petes, and second, their skin tone is becoming more flexible.

In Belgium this year they did not see a real Winter. Though the Christadelphian community encountered a harsh cold time. Trying to find the right manure to build up the Christian community, they got hit in face and stomach, thrown over by a harsh storm. a man from the North brought less enjoyable moments in their community. Like any cold and like any virus it spread fast and ‘killed’ many.

.

Now they look forward to the renewal time of Spring in the hope they too shall be able to continuously grow, bloom and bear fruit. For this they trust in God.

*

Let us also take a new direction and forget the past, reminding:

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“People deal too much with the negative, with what is wrong.
Why not try and see positive things,
to just touch those things and make them bloom.”
~Nhat Hanh

Read also:

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A few weeks ago, the winter finally released it’s grip of Copenhagen, and things started to look a bit brighter… and warmer. Now almost everything has bloomed, even though the temperature is not what it usually would be.

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I love the three months February, March and April of spring each year
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There are new baby animals and birds being born. Flowers, plants and
trees are budding and growing. GMT Summertime is getting closer as it
starts this year on Easter Sunday 31 to the bright mornings and longer evenings.
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Springtime represents new beginnings in our lives. We are all on a
similar journey but at different stage. Springtime gives us a chance to
rethink what we do for ourselves and our surroundings.

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i wish i could take a sound recording of the orchard this morning and post it here for you, but alas, photos will have to suffice. Birds galore…mocking birds singing through their playlist, woodthrush whistling, redwing blackbirds and robins flying from row to row. It’s a cacophony of the best kind. Ahhhh, Spring! Sunshine warming me through my sweatshirt, trees showing green tips, and luckily no blossoms yet. Quite a change from last year’s spring.

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Springtime! (jogginginthesunshine.wordpress.com)
The dead is brought back to life and everything seems so balanced and good again. I don’t know about anyone else, but once spring comes, I cannot help but be happy and so joyful! The depressing, seemingly endless cold has gone. No more dreariness, no more dullness, no more runny noses and red cheeks, and no more layers of leggings underneath pants and multiple socks inside boots. Spring brings a new beginning, new opportunities, and new experiences.
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Don’t we all wish we could have this renewal year-round!? Good news. We can. God provides for us this renewal anytime we want, we just have to ask for it. Everyone goes through plateaus or valleys in their spiritual life. In those times, we need some renewal, some new life, a little pep in our step. God has already brought our dead selves to life, just as the spring does for all the flowers, but now we have to continuously grow, bloom, and bear fruit. This is no easy job. There are days with no sunshine. There are days with too much sunshine, and not enough rain. We get stuck, dull, and weary, without bloom. We feel defeated and need something, anything.

Springtime in Vancouver (emigratebc.wordpress.com)
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April showers bring May flowers!! / Spring is here and we know it!

The Voice of Coming Spring (joeyphoenix.com)
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It is (almost) my favorite time of the year: spring! Only a few more days of cold to survive, and spring will officially be here to stay (I hope)! Especially after this long, cold, tundra-like winter, I am pumped for spring. There is just something about spring. The flowers blooming, the birds chirping, the sun shining; there is just so much change. The dead is brought back to life and everything seems so balanced and good again. I don’t know about anyone else, but once spring comes, I cannot help but be happy and so joyful! The depressing, seemingly endless cold has gone. No more dreariness, no more dullness, no more runny noses and red cheeks, and no more layers of leggings underneath pants and multiple socks inside boots. Spring brings a new beginning, new opportunities, and new experiences.

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